Lori DeFurio

Lori shares Acrobat news, updates, tips and tricks.

I could say heaven, but really its a match due to Adobe Flash. Acrobat 9 and Adobe Reader 9 both include Adobe Flash reducing the need for additional viewers.

Xcelsius Present, an SAP offering, allows you to take data from Microsoft Excel and turn it into something much more useful for presentations — charts, graphs, etc. — and with the latest version you can now export to PDF directly, allowing for rich, engaging, yet portable information.

I created a short intro to match the format of Lori’s Corner on Adobe TV, which will direct you to a demonstration I prepared showing multiple examples of how you can use the two products together.

Please let me know if you’ve created examples and I’ll post them here or on AcrobatUsers.com

Enjoy your summer!

I’m so excited that Acrobat.com has moved from ‘beta’ to ‘shipping’ today. In addition to the free services which have been available for the past year, there are premium services increasing meeting and file size, and support.

Please visit http://blogs.adobe.com/acom/2009/06/hello_business_world_welcome_t.html for a full description of what’s new, what’s improved, and pre-release tools for business productivity.

As many of my readers know, I’ve been hosting a ‘tech corner’ on AcrobatUsers.com for the past few years entitled “Lori’s Corner” with tips & tricks and a ‘Dear Lori’ section where people can ask me Acrobat questions. During the redesign of AcrobatUsers.com (December 2008) the information in the tech corner was integrated into the tutorials section.

It is important for me to continue a relationship with the Acrobat Community and therefore, I would like to announce a new Lori’s Corner – now on Adobe TV. The first episode is a book review of titles on Acrobat 9. My guest is Ali Hanyaloglu.

Enjoy- and if you want to send me a “Dear Lori” — I’ll welcome your question.

A customer asked me if it was possible to convert an Excel workbook with multiple worksheets into individual PDF documents, each named by the worksheet tab.

Well… it is… and here’s how:

1. Select Create PDF and in the Acrobat PDFMaker dialog box select all worksheets

2. Open the resulting file and notice there are now bookmarks that match the worksheet names

3. Select Document > Split Document.

a.Select Top-level bookmarks; select Output Options

b. Select Use bookmark names for file names

And now with just 2 actions (Create PDF & Split Document), you have your individual files.

On Sunday night, the NCAA (men’s college basketball in US) announced the 64 teams participating in their yearly tournament to determine the best basketball team in the country. Adobe along with ESPN have partnered to bring an interactive PDF document to your desktop to allow you to learn about the teams (via streaming video), watch the progress of the tournament bracket, and participate in daily polls.

This document is a great example of what’s possible with Acrobat (and Reader) 9 now that we have Adobe Flash run-time in the product.

Let me know your experience, and I hope your team wins!

An update to Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 is now available. In addition to a security update, there are a few more items:

Updated Software Support

To ensure compatibility with the latest software releases, this update includes support for:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008

• IBM Lotus Notes 8.5 (specifically for Acrobat PDFMaker in email and using Notes for collaboration)
• Autodesk AutoCAD 2009: Acrobat PDFMaker installed in AutoCAD and Acrobat’s 3D Import options

Additionally, there’s support for:

• Catalan and Basque languages

• Using the Pencil tool to add an electronic signature if you’re using a TabletPC or tablet/stylus device

The PDF Portfolio templates posted in August are now included in the update, and of course, some bug fixes.

Where’s the software?

Here’s the direct links to the software updates.
Adobe Reader 9.1 is a full install; Acrobat 9.1 is an update:
Adobe Reader 9.1 : Full install
Acrobat 9.1 Standard : Update
Acrobat 9.1 Pro (Win) : Update
Acrobat 9.1 Pro (Mac) : Update
Acrobat 9.1 Pro Extended : Update

I’m happy to say that Adobe has launched a new page today — entitled Volume Licensing programs for Adobe Acrobat software.

This page compares and contrasts the savings and benefits under the TLP (Transactional Licensing) with CLP (Cumulative Licensing) volume license programs; has links to detailed information and a link to subscribe to the Acrobat IT Tips and Tricks Newsletter.

A new white paper featuring Adobe Acrobat has been published outlining how organizations have moved from paper to electronic, with PDF as the core — to reduce their carbon footprint on Planet Earth.
For example, Bureau Veritas, a global engineering consulting firm, estimates that by eliminating paper and reducing work hours, they saved approximately 50 trees and 22,000 gallons of potable water on a typical power plant project.

The Adobe Reader Team has posted a survey today asking what you want most in the next versions of Adobe Reader. The survey should take 5 minutes or less to complete and is available until January 31, 2009.

Earlier this year, laws were passed in both Nevada and Massachusetts requiring PII (personally identifiable information) be encrypted when stored or transmitted. The Nevada law went into effect October 1, 2008. The Massachusetts law will go into effect in January 2009.

In the text of the laws no specific technology or methodology is called out, but I’m happy to say that both Acrobat and Adobe LiveCycle solutions can be used to meet these requirements.

In the text of the laws no specific technology or methodology is called out, but I’m happy to say that both Acrobat and Adobe LiveCycle solutions can be used to help you meet these requirements. For example, PDF documents that might contain PII can be encrypted using Acrobat 9′s new 256-bit AES encryption or LiveCycle Rights Management; these PDF documents can certified and secured using digital signatures; and Acrobat 9 can examine documents for hidden information and PII can be searched and permanently removed using redaction tools.

I’ll continue to update this post as new information surfaces around the laws and specific solutions that will address these two laws, and of course, any new mandates in 2009.